Director Joseph Castelo’sThe Preppie Connection is inspired by true events in 1984, when 14 students at Choate Rosemary Hall were expelled following the arrest of a peer on charges of attempting to smuggle $300,000 worth of cocaine. With their angst-ridden rich kids and sartorial uniformity, private schools are by nature cinematic gold mines. Add a dose of international drug trafficking and cast a 23-year-old Australian bombshell and you’ve got a hit.

“My character has this deep loneliness,” says Lucy Fry, who plays the enigmatic Alex Hayes. “She tries to fill the void with as many toys as she can.” Alex discovers her pawn in Toby (Thomas Mann), a scholarship student looking for acceptance by the in-crowd. She uses flirtation as a means of coaxing Toby into becoming the group’s “mule.” Under the guise of visiting a fellow student, who happens to be the Colombian ambassador’s son, in Bogotá, he builds up a drug network and becomes the supplier to his affluent classmates. The rest is history—see the movie; read the headlines. You’ll be sure to come away with a new girl crush—up-and-comer Lucy Fry.